2009 Genealogy Treasure Finds

by C. Michael Eliasz-Solomon

Stanczyk has been silent for far too long. Most of my silence is due to my Mac dying and a bad economy dictating that I cannot replace it right now. Lest you feel sorry for this jester, my other reason has been my job. I have been busy working and since August working on an important project vital to my company’s success. So I’ll thank the Lord for my job and the ability to take care of my wife and dog (Princess Java Argus Solomon Eliasz). I’ll get around to registering her with the AKC one of these days. I am thankful for JAVA and TEREZA.

I am also thankful for a wonderful year in genealogy. I can look back and see how luck I was to find a kind soul in Biechow (Elzbieta) who mailed me my grandparent’s marriage record from the church and from the local USC.

I am thankful to Ann Faulkner of Michigan who was able to dig out my great-uncle Jan Eliasz/Elijasz and his death notice. From which I was able to get his death certificate. Next time back home to family, I will pay a visit to my great-uncle’s grave.

Those were huge! I am also thankful for meeting Jacek of Krakow. I met him in a Polish web site: genealodzy.pl. We swapped some images since our families were from the same villages (Biechow, Pacanow, Zborowek amongst others) and some laughs (due to my lack of proficiency with the Polish language). He also worked for me at the Pinczow Archive to research: Eliasz, Leszczynski & Wlecialowski. It is to Jacek, that I am most thankful. He found my grandfather’s birth record ( and many of his siblings), he found an uncle we never knew about (but suspected must exist), he found Leszczynski and many Wlecialowski too. I am particularly grateful he found an Eliasz-Wlecialowski marriage record that solved a problem about how the Eliasz were related to Wlecialowski. In so doing he made a genealogical friend of mine, a third cousin! I am most thankful to Jacek fo rhis finding the marriage churhc record of my great-grandparents: Tomasz Leszczynski & Aniela Major (yes this is a Polish name). He also found three pages of alegata describing the marriage banns — believe when I have a MAC again, I will post pictures. This must have been a pre-cursor to a marriage license — it has a postage stamp on the top of the 1st page! It was from 1885, so the pre-amble and the final summation are in Russian/Cyrillic, but the middle was in Polish — and I was able to read and understand it; Much good info there.

So all-in-all, I’d have to say that 2009 was an unparalleled year for genealogy. How did your genealogy search go this year?